Final Fantasy XIV is no more. Long live Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn. producer and director Naoki Yoshida answered fan questions about the revamped MMORPG and someone asked if players can fight him in PvP mode. Yoshida ackwnowledged players will be able to spar with the development team and Square Enix CEO Yoichi Wada.

"There are multiple people from the development team who put a lot of thought into the PvP system and we currently do have plans to implement a system where players will be able to fight against the development team. As an additional note, we have plans for players to be able to fight Wada for an event!"

Yoshida also said coeurl mounts are being planned for Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn and talked a lot about the game’s houses. Here’s the full Q&A from the Producer Live chat:

Will Hildibrand make an appearance in [Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn] ARR?

Naoki Yoshida, Producer and Director: Of course! He will most likely face brand-new challenges. Please look forward to it in ARR!

Will we be able to change our character name at the start of ARR?

We’ll continue to look at the possibilities until the very end, but it looks like we will be able to provide this option.

Will my character’s chest be bouncy?

If you are an expert in this area, you will most likely understand, but they will… *boing boing*

Will we be able to use Magitek armor in battle? Also, would it be possible to provide us with additional info on the other mounts you’re planning to implement?

Unfortunately, we currently do not have plans for the Magitek armor to be usable in battle. However, we may treat this particular mount in a special way. Also, we’re currently planning to implement a coeurl mount. We’re currently in the process of testing out the animations

In the current version of the game for primal battles, a lot of pressure is put on tanks and healers. For A Realm Reborn will there be any rebalancing of each role’s responsibility?

Not only for ARR, but for MMORPGs in general, the tank’s role is extremely important as they have to hold hate, and the healers role is equally important, however, if attackers are not able to deal damage the fight will go on and on, so it’s not the case where other classes are not as important or busy. We’d like to have everyone try out the Beta Test to see how everything is balanced.

Will there be any changes to 8-person parties in A Realm Reborn? Are there any plans for solo or low-man content?

For raids the focus will be on 8-person parties. For instanced dungeons there will also be 4-person party ones. In regards to high-level content, we are planning to make it fundamentally focused on full parties, however there will be casual content as well. For example, one plan we have is for content called "FULL ACTIVE TIME EVENT." This is content that contains various elements such as fighting against a bunch of monsters that spawn and hamlet defense-like elements. For the time being, think of it as there will be a lot of different content in a variety of places.

You mentioned that the concept of the monk job was going be changed. Would it be possible to provide a little bit more information? (Such as if STR/INT will continue to be their main attribute, what kind of abilities they will have, etc.)

The main attribute for all classes and jobs will be completely different. Since the whole battle system will be revamped, we will make the necessary changes to accommodate these changes.

Will there be anything new added for crafters and gatherers in ARR?

We currently do not have anything planned that is specific for gatherers and crafters that could be considered as a “main focus”. However, they will play an important part for things like housing (such as changing roofs, etc.) for example.

Please tell us more about the new market system.

The retainer system has been revamped from the ground up. We are planning to implement new functions such as the auction house system, which was requested by a ton of players. Additionally, you will be able to display the retainer of your liking while in the wards. It’s quite difficult to explain so please see for yourself in the Beta Test!

How will the materia system change in ARR?

Basically, there won’t be too many changes. In the current version, there are fluctuations in the resulting stats for materia, but in ARR these fluctuations will be removed. The rate for multiple melding will be higher than it is currently, and the materia system as a whole will be made more casual.

I found some artwork related to the housing system. Can you tell us more about it?

Here’s the artwork for a large size house. As you can see, large houses will come with balconies. If you plan to purchase a house of this caliber, it will require a very large amount of gil. You will be able to set entry restrictions for your house. With this function, you will be able to specify which players will have access to your house. With the larger houses, we plan to release it as a headquarters for the free companies initially, and then release it as a personal house later on. Additionally, you will be able to place parks and towers within your houses and these objects will provide special bonuses such as experience bonus, HQ rate bonus for crafting, etc. Furthermore, we have plans to turn a portion of a room to an instance that the players will be able to live in.

How much will housing, including the interior and furniture, cost?

We will be lowering the value of gil in ARR, so this is quite difficult to say, but a couple of level 50 players that save up their gil can get an S-sized house.

Will we be able to form free companies even if we are from different grand companies? Tell us more about free companies!

Regardless of your grand company, you will be able to join a free company. Who you build your free company with is up to you and we leave the role playing up to you. There will be a value system for grand companies, “reputation,” so you’ll be able to contribute to a grand company of your liking.

Will you be selling that sweet poster of the primals?

We’re planning to make it into a poster, but this one behind us is just for promotional use. We also have a lot of other plans!

How are you planning to attach the Legacy bonuses (i.e. chocobo, etc.)?

The Legacy bonuses will be tied to the Square Enix accounts. As long as your account is flagged as a Legacy account, existing characters and new characters will be able to receive the associated bonuses.

When will the PC benchmark be released?

We’re planning to release the first one around the time of the Beta Test. The first one will be to check your system in order to play the Beta and the other benchmark will be released around the timing of the launch of ARR. We are planning to have character creation in the second benchmark.

Tell us if there will be any physical evidence on our characters that they survived the Seventh Umbral Era!

Sorry, but we cannot tell you right now! We will let you know once the time comes!

Please tell us more about the Crystal Tower and the Great Labyrinth of Bahamut!

The Crystal Tower will be an alliance-specific raid and an alliance party consists of three parties. Both the Crystal Tower and the Great Labyrinth of Bahamut will be expanded in multiple stages. Also, as far as the Great Labyrinth of Bahamut goes, you probably figured out the Dalamud was used to imprison Bahamut. Players will find out why Bahamut was trapped, why the key-like object fell to the ground, what role the key plays in the dungeon, etc. Sorry, this is much as I can say for now!

How many new hairstyles will there be? Will it be possible to change them in ARR?

*Yoshi-P shows off new images of male Miqo’te and female Roegadyn*

When will we be able to use the new hairstyles and other features that are added?

We are trying our best so that you can use them during testing, but there is a chance that they will be implemented into the Beta without all of the animations finalized.

In the 3rd player survey, there was a question about new races/clans, but when and what race will be implemented? Will there be Viera or beastmen/lizardmen?

Viera are extremely popular amongst our players overseas, so we are lost in thought on this one. We haven’t decided anything as of yet and are still looking into this. In the event that we do add them, it will be in the future in an expansion.

Depending on the area, will maps change based on the season? For example, flowers blossoming, leaves changing color or falling off trees, etc.

Areas will have certain elements, so you will be able to feel the seasons. However, Eorzea’s time and real world time are slightly different, and there are different times around the world as well, but we will be matching it to Japan since it is a game originating in Japan. As we showed you before, there are snowy mountains, so we hope you’ll be able to experience the varying seasons.

Are there any plans to expand inventory size? Also, are there any plans for us to be able to send an item to our secondary character easily?

Unfortunately, we do not have plans to increase the player’s inventory size (maybe a little). However, we do have plans to expand a player’s storage. We also have plans for players to be able to increase the number of gear sets they can have through quests. As far as sending an item to a secondary character goes, in ARR, you will only be able to send letters and items to your friends. As long as you know a character’s info, you will be able to send them a letter/item. Furthermore, we are planning out the delivery system so that player’s won’t be able to abuse the system (anti-RMT measures).

When can overseas players join the Alpha Test?

The first phase of the Alpha Test has been completed, and we have managed to solve almost all of the issues when player numbers increase. We’ve made it possible to safely run the game with 800 people in a single area, but once it the area exceeds 800 people we’ve seen some heavy lag. Next week will not have an Alpha Test and we’ll be focusing on fixing this. The week after if we are able to hold five days of tests with no issues, we will open Alpha globally on 11/26.

Will it be possible to get married? Will same-sex marriage be possible?

There will be a cathedral in ARR, and this was created so that marriage can be performed. We will release information on this once marriage is possible. Same-sex marriage is an extremely fragile topic, so for now we would like to only have opposite-sex marriage to start.

What’s the counter that’s appearing on the right side of the Alpha Test screen?

That is the number of party invites and friend invites I have received.

Can you tell us what’s planned for equipment dying? Can you dye artifact?

For dyeing, there will be colors that can be purchased from NPCs and there will also be those that will be made by Disciples of the Land/Hand. It will be possible to dye gear that has already been dyed a different color. At the start there will be 24 colors, but there will also be rare colors besides these 24. In regards to the methods for dying, the places you can dye are decided based on the equipment, and only that part can be dyed. For artifact we are not planning to allow for color changes at first. We don’t want to destroy the image of artifact armor, but we’d like to do this in the future.

When you create a new character in ARR, they come with the race-specific gear. Will existing players also receive the race-specific gear? Also, are there any plans to implement a high-level version of the race-specific gear?

Existing players will also be able to obtain the new race-specific gear. As far as the high-level version goes, while we currently do not have plans to implement them, if we receive a large amount of requests, we’ll take it into consideration.

Will you need to buy a separate registration code for the PS3 version if you are playing on PC? Will it be possible to play on both PC and PS3 with the same account?

We apologize, but it will be necessary to purchase a separate PS3 registration code. It’s possible for a PC version character to play on PS3, so it will be possible to alternate.

Will be able to challenge "The Raven, Nevermore" in ARR? Also, will we still be able to obtain the primal weapons?

Unfortunately, "The Raven, Nevermore" was implemented specifically for the current version of FFXIV. Therefore, you will not be able to challenge it in ARR. However, the primal weapons will be available in ARR.

Is there anything else besides Carbuncle for arcanist? Any other new information besides arcanist, summoner, artifact, and relics?

Arcanist will basically only use Carbuncle, but there is a chance we expand on this in the future. It’s a bit tough to release new information right now, but there are these things… (Shows arcanist rewards for Great Labyrinth of Bahamut, arcanist book that can be purchased with grand company seals, job equipment for summoner, class-specific arcanist equipment)

I would like to know when the Beta Test will start and I’d like an updated version of the road map.

Currently we are about two months and two weeks behind schedule compared to the road map that was released on Oct. 14, 2011. The main reason of the delay is the vast amount of adjustments that needed to be taken care of two months ago. While we’d like to stay on schedule, we want to make sure we create a top-tier MMORPG that can compete against the rest of the MMORPGs in the market. Therefore, we wanted to spend as much as time as we need until we are satisfied with the product. Sorry to keep you all waiting, but we plan on releasing a new roadmap around the end of November/early December. We’re starting to prepare for the Beta Test which we would like to implement at the end of January or early February. However, we are doing our best to make it so we can have the servers open 24 hours to allow for more and more players to participate in the Alpha Test, so please hang in there a bit longer for finalized details.

“Battle Square Enix CEO Yoichi Wada” that’s going to make some people happy…

badmoogle

It will probably be his secretary or something. :p

Godmars

Only if I get to use real weapons, and the winner in the battle to the death gets to run the company.

BTW – Japan doesn’t have any issues about hanging heads on flagpoles, do they?

Göran Isacson

The question of same-sex marriages being allowed struck me as fascinating- how many MMORPG’s out there have a marriage system these days, and how many allow anyone, no matter what gender or race their avatar has, to get “official in-game” married? Would be cool if Square could possibly be the first ones to allow something like that, even if they risk the ire of some nasty trolls.

Also interesting- that blurb about different races. I take it he means they asked if players would want to see new playable races in the game, and that the Viera were an alternative? Anyone who can tell me what other races they offered, or did they offer no options but instead tell players to send in their own suggestions?

Luna Kazemaru

There are few games that have that system but its useally abused to hell and back but never tried to see if it was same sex well grand chase has it

Luna Kazemaru

There are few games that have that system but its useally abused to hell and back but never tried to see if it was same sex well grand chase has it

Tien Ron

I, actually surpized the virera weren’t in the game from the start instead of using cat people.
also i’m surpized at him saying its a issue cause it isn’t its ok to have bouncing boobs around everywhere but GLBT cannot get married

Göran Isacson

I think that they lifted most races from Final Fantasy XI, and Viera were introduced, I think, in Final Fantasy XII, so I could understand why they weren’t in XIV. Mithra (the cat people) simply came first!

Ha ha, that comparison really doesn’t make them come off very well. Now I don’t claim to know the Japanese attitude towards GLBT issues, maybe it’s a really big deal over there or something and it would raise all kinds of hell with conservative groups and trolls, I dunno. But I do hope they can be convinced to include it, because I don’t know how much they can afford to not be inclusive after all the bad press this game has gotten.

Hollen Kurotaki

Viera were introduced in FF tatics advance though ff11 was released about 9 months earlier so Mithra did come first

Göran Isacson

Aaah, gotcha. I admit that I’m not very up to speed on the whole Ivalice-series and which game came first, but as long as the facts still back me up re: Mithra and Viera and which came first (and couldn’t THAT be a naughty double entendre if you read it that way), It’s aaall good.

Göran Isacson

I think that they lifted most races from Final Fantasy XI, and Viera were introduced, I think, in Final Fantasy XII, so I could understand why they weren’t in XIV. Mithra (the cat people) simply came first!

Ha ha, that comparison really doesn’t make them come off very well. Now I don’t claim to know the Japanese attitude towards GLBT issues, maybe it’s a really big deal over there or something and it would raise all kinds of hell with conservative groups and trolls, I dunno. But I do hope they can be convinced to include it, because I don’t know how much they can afford to not be inclusive after all the bad press this game has gotten.

Wiccan1109

I heard Rift has same gender marriage options, but i think under a different name? There was a valentine event in XIV before that allowed same gender pairings though.

About the races, we had a list of options to choose, Viera was given as an example but people FLIPPED over the mention of it and it kinda escalated;
Reptilian beastmen (ex. lizardmen, draconians, etc.)

Mammalian beastmen (ex. wolfmen, gnolls, etc.)

Reptilian demi-beastmen (ex. a race with demonic features such as horns, etc.)

Mammalian demi-beastmen (ex. a rabbit-eared race such as the Viera from FFXII, etc.)

More clans for existing races (ex. greater variation in physical build and appearance)

Races of mixed heritage (ex. Elezen-Hyur, Mi’qote-Lalafell, etc.)

Göran Isacson

Are the examples you give here those who were given to players, or are they suggestions given? I have to admit that out of these tree Reptilian Beastmen, More clans for existing races and mixed races sound the most interesting to me, in descending order. Variety is my spice of life, and reptiles get far too few fair shakes in most fantasy environments.

Wiccan1109

These were all options given to us by SE in the poll. Its possible they gathered this data from the official website forums, because players often create threads with ideas/suggestions/desires for the game, and a lot of those options were things that players had been talking about for months.

Göran Isacson

Got it. Think I’ll be keeping an eye on these then, all these race-ideas sound like they could make for intriguing new additions to the game… at least, lore-wise. I’ve no idea if the races have an in-game differences to balance, so that may prevent them from including a lot of new races, i.e a lot of new factors to balance.

What’s that, you say? A game that lets me beat up Yoichi Wada?? Now THERE’S a sales pitch!!

Nyandroid

I want me that Coeurl mount! =^w^=~

DCBlackbird

At last we can finish where we started

DCBlackbird

At last we can finish where we started

Tien Ron

same sex marriage is a extremely fragile topic?
no it is not!

CirnoLakes

Most of the people who feel that allowing same sex marriage in game offends them, are the type of people too stupid to figure out how to play Final Fantasy XIV in the first place.

They should add same sex marriage. They’re going to please a lot more people than they upset by adding it.

Elvick

(Meant for this to be a reply to Tienn… my bad)

It really isn’t.

Video game developers should have more balls to just do what’s logical. Besides, if they could justify FFX’s handling of religion, then this should be a no brainer.

Where’d your balls go SE?

komiko12

In other MMOs, there are many male players who uses their female characters to marry another male player.

Elvick

(Meant for this to be a reply to Tienn… my bad)

It really isn’t.

Video game developers should have more balls to just do what’s logical. Besides, if they could justify FFX’s handling of religion, then this should be a no brainer.

Where’d your balls go SE?

Grenalie

It is.

komiko12

Actually they made it a sensitive topic because… they brought it up in the first place.

Some people in MMO’s I’ve seen has married in-game just to get the couple benefits so they don’t care about the gender of the partner as long as they get the bonus.

Eilanzer

i just don´t understand WHY marriage in a game ¬¬ …

Wiccan1109

Regarding same-sex marriage: Theres a poll on lodestone right now about this and although theres some conflict like always, the poll is heavily in favour of same-sex marriage in the game. This is for the west though, and different countries handle it in different ways. Most people seem to think put it in the game for both or dont put it in at all.

Regarding Wada: Pretty sure they said hes never played an MMO before. I can totally imagine them hireing some pro kid and having him pretend to be Wada!

Regarding races: In the forums, Viera were so prominant because theyre ‘sexy bunny girls’. We already have sexy humans, sexy cat girls, sexy elves, buxom sexy highlanders and buxom sexy roegadyn on the way. A handful of people quite put out that female lalafell arent getting boob sliders in 2.0… i just wonder when it will be enough. Itd be nice to see something more animal than cosplayer that derails from this sexy/cute/handsome tunnel vision.

Draparde

I personally voted for the mixed race’s. since Viera’s didint interest me much.

sadly i don’t think it will ever go away. but we can only hope that not all races being added will be based on player polls. (though i suppose that’s not a bad thing either)

りんごタルト＠エスカのアトリエ

They never bothered to ask if you can use a keyboard to play the game on your PS3. The XMB interface is fine and dandy but typing out a command will take a long damn time on the thing.

It’s not like I’m going to get the game on PS3. Just saying.

Tianyu Wei

I wonder if beating up Yoichi Wada could actually be a reason for people to play this rofl…

Chip

Joy, I finally get to live my dream of kicking Wada’s ass.

Derek Wearmouth

honestly beta test might not even start until the end of January early Feb wtf?? im not one to rush but having the servers shut down for 4-6 months isn’t going to get your revenue back any faster…. i am betting that after all this they jack up sub costs and piss more people off.

Tobias Arvidsson

I am Excited!

Like the rest of the mmo’s out there dont forget the proffesions!
id really like they to be much of importance and not forgotten!
And ofc make endgame content! thats where the heavy hitters are :)

Video game stories from other sites on the web. These links leave Siliconera.